Singles copies of the latest edition of The Iconographers
Review can be purchased here for
£8.00. (The Journal is priced at £4.00 plus post and packing £3.00 plus paypal
commission charge £1.00)

The British Association of Iconographers sponsor
2 open days a year in late Spring and early Autumn. Details
of these special members days are included in The Iconographer's Review which
is mailed free of charge to all members of the Association. Singles copies can
be obtained on the left, but details of the open days are not in every issue.
For further information please contact info@bai.org.uk

2017

The British Association of Iconographers

Members Day

21st October 2017

1.30 pm to 3.00 pm

A talk by

Aidan Hart

Learning to paint icons in the 21st Century

Secrets of the art

Members free. Non Members £10 - pay on the day.
Numbers limited so booking in advance is essential. To book contact info@bai.org.uk
.
To be held at
St Edward The Confessor Catholic Church. Burchard Crescent, Shenley Church End,
Milton Keynes, MK5 6DX

2016

Members Day and AGM

15th October 2016

AGM to start at 3.15pm (Admission to AGM is free to members)

11.30 am to 3.00 pm

Icons: Writing in Gold (title after Robin Cormack)

The talk, by Dr Irina Bradley, will explore the symbolism of gold in the Icon and be followed by a practical session which includes gilding using breathing technique, demonstrations of gilding over beer reduced by boiling technique and making shell gold.

Members £5.00 Non Members £10 (Numbers limited so booking in advance is essential)

The BAI will provide 5 or 6 sheets of gold leaf FOC per person for practice purposes. If you think you will need more please bring some of your own

Use our website to book and to pay. (Go to Contact us and scroll down to PayPal payment button).

To be held at ;
Christ the Cornerstone Church, 300 Saxon Gate West, Milton Keynes, MK9 2ES
There will be a break for lunch at 12.30pm to 1.30pm and, if required, there is a café on site.
After the lecture gilding Irina will be demonstrating how it is done and members will get some hands on tuition.

Dr Irina Bradley is a British iconographer, who follows the traditional way of icon painting, which is regarded as a contemplative practice. In her work Irina uses natural earth and mineral pigments, including malachite, lapis and cinnabar. Irina studied icon painting at the Prosopon School of Iconology in Moscow under Elena Antonova, who encouraged her to become a teacher in icon painting. She continued her studies at the Prince's School of Traditional Arts in London where, amongst other disciplines, she studied Indian and Persian miniature painting, mosaics, stained glass, islimi and geometry. Irina is a visiting tutor for icon painting at the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London. She also teaches icon painting at her Buckinghamshire studio. Irina presented her research and icons at Temenos Academy in London, Oxford University and Villa Empain in Brussels. Irina’s icons are in churches, places of private worship and private collections in Australia, Norway, Russia, the UAE, United Kingdom and the United States, including the main Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God in London.

Welcome by the Chair
Apologies
Minutes of the last AGM
Matters arising
Report by the officers
AOB
Date of next AGM

Members Day

16th April 2016

11.30 am to 3.30 pm

A talk and demonstration by Dr Irina Bradley

Architecture and Landscape in Icons

Members £5.00 Non Members £10 (Numbers limited so booking in advance essential)

Use our website to book and to pay. (Go to Contact us and scroll down to PayPal payment button).

To be held at
Christ the Cornerstone Church, 300 Saxon Gate West, Milton Keynes, MK9 2ES
There will be a break for lunch at 12.30pm to 1.30pm and, if required, there is a café on site.
After a lecture on architectural elements and landscape in icons Irina will be demonstrating how the layers are built up by applications of highlights and translucent floats in icons painted in Russo-Byzantine style of around 1400. Participants will have a chance to practice an application of a base layer on a small board which they can take home for further practice of the techniques discussed.

Dr Irina Bradley is a British iconographer, who follows the traditional way of icon painting, which is regarded as a contemplative practice. In her work Irina uses natural earth and mineral pigments, including malachite, lapis and cinnabar. Irina studied icon painting at the Prosopon School of Iconology in Moscow under Elena Antonova, who encouraged her to become a teacher in icon painting. She continued her studies at the Prince's School of Traditional Arts in London where, amongst other disciplines, she studied Indian and Persian miniature painting, mosaics, stained glass, islimi and geometry. Irina is a visiting tutor for icon painting at the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London. She also teaches icon painting at her Buckinghamshire studio. Irina presented her research and icons at Temenos Academy in London, Oxford University and Villa Empain in Brussels. Irina’s icons are in churches, places of private worship and private collections in Australia, Norway, Russia, the UAE, United Kingdom and the United States, including the main Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God in London.

Members Day

June 2015

Members
Day

The next BAI sponsored

Members
Day

is a talk and demonstration
by

Fadi Mikhail

Coptic
Iconographer

on

Saturday
27th June 2015

inThe
Pimlico Room at St Saviours Church in Pimlico London SW1V 3QW.

In
2013, Fadi was commissioned by Royal Mail to produce an Icon of Christ and St
Mary for their £1.88 Christmas stamp. He was also commissioned by the Coptic
Church to produce 2 icons for HRH Prince of Wales who visited The Coptic Church
Centre on 17 Dec 2013., Fadi was apprenticed by the father of Neo-Coptic Iconography
- the late Professor Isaac Fanous - in California USA.

The
talk will start at 12.30pm and finish at 3.00pm.

The
cost is £5.00 for members and £10 for non members.

Please
book in advance by email to John Clawson info@bai.org.uk

March
2015

The
next BAI sponsored Members Day is a talk by Hanna Ward The Golden Ratio
and will be on 14th March 2015 in The Pimlico Room at St Saviours Chuch in Pimlico
London SW1V 3QW. The talk will start at 10.30 am and finish at 3.30pm. Hanna will
talk and show images in the beginning but then we will do practical compass work
and members will learn to construct patterns and golden section. So note that
it will be also a geometry practical exercise class and not only a talk so bring
a good quality compass, 12 inch ruler, a sharp pencil and a pencil sharpener,
rubber and maybe one or two coloured pencils and some A4 paper.

The
cost is £5.00 for members and £10 for non members.

A
MEMBERS’ DAY WITH PETER MURPHY March 2014

Water
Gilding

29th March 2014

£10 to Members

Saturday 29th March, from 10.00am until 5.00pm with a break for lunch, in the
Pimlico room, Church of St Saviour Pimlico, London,

You should bring a single
figure icon, no bigger than A4 paper size with the drawing transferred onto the
board ready to gild.

We will just aim to gild the halo, not all of the background
given time and cost restrictions. Please bring your own gold leaf.

Have
you ever painted on silk? Now is the time to have a go. Yvonne Bell is a professional
silk painter who often paints icons on silk to be used on vestments for churches.
The photo is of one end of a priest's stole showing an icon of Christ Pantocrator.
This is the icon Yvonne intends to get everyone to paint in her workshop.
Yvonne demonstrates each step first and supplies all the materials needed to produce
a small icon on Habotai silk. The finished piece of silk can either be sewn
onto another fabric or it can be stretched over a canvas to make a painting.
For more information phone Yvonne 01908 623474 or email yvonnebell@yvonnbell.co.uk

See
more of her icons on www.christianart-yvonnebell.co.uk or www.vestments.co.uk

The BAI 2012 AGM will follow at 4.00 p.m. All members are invited
to the AGM whether participating in the Members’ Day or not.

2011

Water gilding with Peter Murphy. BAI Learning Day, 1 October
2011

Christopher Robins and Debbie Robins

It was a beautiful day on the
1st of October and the thought of the Holloway Road was not inviting, but I am
so glad I decided to attend. I am fairly new to icon writing and previously have
only done oil gilding under the direction of Dom Anselm at Alton Abbey. The process
of water gilding was completely new to me. There were about fifteen attendees
around the table and those of us who were not prepared with the right equipment
and materials borrowed and bought from others. Peter Murphy is a very experienced
gilder who will be known to many members of the BAI. He proved to be an amazing
teacher and craftsman: calm, coherent, and patient, with an encyclopaedic knowledge
of the subject. He started by describing how clay bole was prepared in the past,
referring to the recipes given by Cennino Cennini in his medieval artist’s manual
Il libro dell’arte. Peter also recommended this book as an entertaining read
(available cheaply as a paperback from Dover Publications). Peter favours gelatine
over rabbit-skin glue in his gilding preparations, and uses a much more liquid
bole than most gilders. Using a soft brush, we applied several thin, quite transparent,
coats of bole to the gessoed board, allowing each layer to dry before applying
the next. Drying times were greatly reduced due to the heat of the day, but in
milder conditions it would take an hour or two until the layers of bole were dry
enough to gild.

After lunch Peter introduced us to the specialist tools: the gilder’s
cushion, knife, gilder’s tip, and agate burnisher. He uses 23.5 carat loose
leaf, of standard thickness. Removing the gold leaf from its book and placing
it on the gilding cushion is a delicate job as the leaf can fly away, wrap up
on itself, or land in a crumpled heap, and one must blow gently on it to straighten
it out. We had to turn off the air conditioning in the room to reduce the draught,
which made for an uncomfortably hot and humid atmosphere.

Once laid
flat on the cushion, the gold was cut into halves or quarters using the gilder’s
knife. Peter demonstrated how to stroke the gilder’s tip on your skin to pick
up a little oil and then use it to lift a piece of leaf. The gold leaf must be
lifted on the tip and placed down on the bole surface without any lateral action
to avoid splitting the gold leaf. Before placing the leaf, the bole is painted
with gilding water (a mixture of water, gelatine, and alcohol). The bole was gradually
covered with small, slightly overlapping pieces of gold leaf, working from top
to bottom of the icon.

At this stage the area looked like a mess of
crumpled gold leaf but Peter assured us that this was normal. After a few minutes
we lightly tamped down the gold leaf with a wad of cotton wool. When the whole
surface of the bole was covered with gold leaf and was sufficiently dry (a shorter
time than usual in the heat), it was ready for burnishing. Peter recommended that
the agate burnisher should first be rubbed on a soft cloth to warm it, which helps
to avoid dragging and scratching the gold. The gilded surface is first gently
stroked with the side of the burnisher, then rubbed harder, until the slightly
soft surface produces a high sheen. If the finished result is less than perfect,
with areas stained by water or places where the gold has not adhered, it can be
double-gilded—a second layer of gold is laid, lightly wiping the surface with
gilder’s water as you go. After a short drying time it can be burnished as before.

We
all had an excellent day, despite the heat wave, and the Dialogue Society proved
an excellent venue, spacious and very well lit. It was a great pleasure to network
with fellow members of the BAI, and everyone was most friendly. Thanks to Peter’s
generosity with his expertise we all picked up many tips and alternative approaches
to practise at home. Icon writing is a solitary activity, so study days like this
are a welcome forum for exchange of ideas and to find out where others source
their panels and materials. Many attendees had travelled quite a distance to be
there, and it was a much appreciated opportunity. Our thanks to Peter Murphy and
to John Clawson who organized the event.

Peter Murphy’s recipes

Peter uses food-quality gelatin, available in the ‘traditional desserts’ or
baking section of leading supermarkets.

Size.
For glue to attach unbleached open-weave muslin to the panels the strongest solution
possible: one whole sachet of gelatine to ½ pint of just off-the-boil water.
This strong glue can also be used for sizing panels.

Gesso. 1¼ to 1¹/3 by eye of a sachet of gelatine
to a pint of just-off-the-boil water. Keep it on no. 1 on the hob and slowly spoon
1 dry pint of whiting into the water, stirring gently and constantly until everything
has dissolved and amalgamated. Mix finally through with a coarse bristle brush
before applying to make sure no pockets of whiting are undissolved anywhere in
the mix.

Gilder’s bole.
Make a weak gelatine solution of ¾ pint (15 fl. oz.) of just boiled water to
½ sachet of gelatine. Leave until lukewarm and stir in 1 dessertspoon of Lefranc
red bole paste with a stiff bristle brush until you have dissolved all the bole
smoothly into the water. This can be kept in a jar for weeks.

Gilder’s water. Simply put a spoonful or two of
the weak gelatine solution for bole into a glass of distilled water with a splash
of clear alcohol, e.g. vodka or grappa (nothing with any sugar content).